Listening to Online Streaming

For listening on your web browser, click on the streams for your area below to launch our web player. If you prefer to use a stand alone player installed on your pc (like the excellent free VLC player) or if you have an internet radio that needs a URL, our web player also includes useful stream link buttons for common players.

Our station streams in standard quality by default. This a great sounding stream and recommended for most people, especially on the 3G/4G mobile network to minimise data consumption and reduce the chance of network drop outs & buffering. As a guide, the stream usually consumes about ~30MB/~0.03GB of data an hour.

Our stream has a high quality option on the web player drop down menu. This is a very high quality stream and consumes about twice the data as a standard stream. If you can hear & appreciate the difference, your listening on higher end audio equipment, and you have the data bandwidth available, then this is the stream for you.

Most Linux, Mac and Windows 7 (or newer) systems are supported by the web player. Chrome, Firefox & Opera browsers are supported. Windows XP/Vista are not supported but the stream may work. Apple Ipod/Iphone/Ipads and Android devices are great for listening on 3G/4G mobile networks while travelling, and also make good Wi-Fi portable players around the house - as do smart speakers like Amazon Alexa.

An alternative to our web browser player on your phone is to download a free App. The free Commercial Radio Australia RadioApp is a good choice in the Apple Store and Google Play.

Rebel 99.4 Gold Coast (standard)

Rebel 99.4 Gold Coast (hq)

FM Streaming

Our FM frequencies are listed in the region drop down menu on our home page.

Improving Home & Work FM Reception

If you are in a fringe FM area here are a couple of tips on improving home and work FM reception.

FM works best on a "line of sight" basis using good equipment. A fringe distant signal or hilly areas obscured from the transmitter site degrade reception.

First make sure you can receive us on a known good car radio outside your house/work, as most (but not all) car radios tend to be better than the average radio, and they benefit from an outdoor antenna. If that works, but your indoor reception is poor, two things help improve or resolve poor in building reception, requiring one or both of;

1. An external roof top FM antenna.

It makes a huge difference in most cases. Please make sure your radio has an external FM antenna input socket before buying an antenna, but most good FM stereo tuners have one. Something like a Hills Y3FM antenna (these are similar to small VHF TV antennas and typically <$60) bolted onto your TV mast, pointing towards the transmitter site, and plugged into the external FM antenna input socket of your home stereo. Use good cable, like the common RG6QS.

In very weak signal areas you may need a larger (higher gain) antenna than a Hills FM3 and/or a FM/VHF masthead signal amplifier. You can put these in yourself if you’re so inclined, or a reputable TV/FM antenna installer can do this for you.

An installer can measure the signal level and indicate if it will likely work for you before they proceed with the installation. If you have trouble on your TV mast location, try a few different antenna locations high on your roof. Moving it 1 or 2 metres along the roof can sometimes make a big difference.

In some cases, if you have an existing external VHF TV (that covers Band 2) antenna pointing in roughly the right direction, this can work as an alternative to a dedicated external FM antenna, and can be checked quickly by temporarily plugging your existing TV antenna into your FM tuner. If it works, an indoor splitter will be required if you want to permanently share the antenna between your TV and FM radio. UHF TV antennas will not work.

2. A good quality FM radio/tuner

Ideally plugged into an external FM antenna. If you have a few radios, try them all, as they can vary a lot in quality. The price of radios can be a broad guide to its ability to process weak FM signals, but we've seen $50 radios outperform $500 radios. Typically tuners with a digital frequency display in your home stereo system are likely to be best, so try those first.

For stand-alone radios, stores like Jaycar sell 'sensitive' units that are designed for fringe/long distance FM reception. If you don't have an external FM antenna, be sure to try positioning the radio's inbuilt antenna close to the transmitter side of the house, if possible with its antenna fully extended and in front of a window, so your radio antenna is as close as possible to visually "seeing" the transmitter site.

Improving Vehicle FM Reception

Vehicle reception is generally easier to get than in home FM reception. So if you can get the FM signal at home, then in the car (around the same area) should be possible.

Try travelling in other cars to see if their radio can receive the signal in your area, as it may be just that the signal is too weak even for good radios to receive in your area. Cost of car is not always a great indication of the factory fitted radio FM sensitivity. For example, we have a Toyota Prado, which came with an on-glass antenna and it has poor FM fringe reception. We also have a cheaper older Toyota RAV4 and the radio is brilliant, plus the car has an extendable roof top FM antenna which works well.

1. External FM antennas work best.

We mean the extendable or fixed length type of AM/FM antennas that sit above the car body. If your car does not have an obvious external antenna, then it probably has an "on glass" antenna. These look like rear window demister coils, and can be seen as "fine wires" stuck on the glass, usually on a rear side window. These rarely work as well as an external antenna.

For vehicles with bull bars, consider mounting a full length FM antenna on them. For cars, if you don’t mind the look, they can often also be mounted on the side of the boot or bonnet using brackets that don’t need external holes drilled.

2. Get a better vehicle FM radio.

Try other car radios of family & friends to see if they have better reception. If they do, it suggests you could also benefit from a better radio and/or antenna.

Many cars have integrated car audio & control systems these days, which may make it impractical to replace the radio with an after market unit. But if you can, you need a digitally tuned, highly sensitive FM radio. Talk to someone such as JB Hi FI or a car audio automotive specialist, and tell them you need a unit to pick up a fringe/weak FM signal. If possible, try different working demo units in store to see which one best picks us up (or any other known weak FM signal in that location).

3. Internet Stream Alternative

If the above options don’t work or are not practical or you, and you have the spare 3G/4G data on your phone plan, then streaming on your car radio can be a good option. Some newer cars have built in apps for this. If not, try using an App on your Android or Iphone to play the station on the 3G/4G phone network, and stream that to a bluetooth car stereo system.

If your car radio is too old for bluetooth, but has an Aux input, you can cable connect that to your phone headphone socket. If you don’t have an Aux input but do have a cassette player, Jaycar sell cassette shell adaptors for <$20 that connects your phone headphone output to the cassette deck.